Why 2013 is just like 1963: Should Obama beware?

Authors Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis set the stage in the years leading up to the assassination in their much-praised new book, “Dallas 1963.”

According to “Dallas 1963” authors Bill Minutaglio and Steven Davis, President Barack Obama better watch his back. They say the political climate today mirrors what was happening in Dallas the year Kennedy was assassinated.

“People criticized Kennedy for founding Medicare in 1963 the same way President Obama is criticized today for Obamacare,” Davis tells Metro.

With Obama’s approval rating down to 39 percent – a new low for the president — the country’s sentiment is similar to what it was in the early 1960s. Kennedy is so revered today that people often forget how unpopular he was at the time. “Dallas 1963” really brings readers back to this time period, in the city where Kennedy’s most influential opponents lived.

The way “Dallas 1963” portrays the country’s biggest players in the years leading up to Kennedy’s death makes it a mesmerizing read. But the authors didn’t take creative license with their characters, whose real-life actions were dramatic enough. “There were about eight people living in Dallas who were just incredibly forceful, charismatic and almost cinematic in their nature all joined in this confederacy to overthrow Kennedy,” Minutaglio says, naming the word’s wealthiest man and the country’s most influential preacher General Walker among these people. “A small number of people had an incredible amount of power and influence.”

“We wrote the book to take people back to this time and show how controversial JFK was,” Davis says. “People were saying his presidency was the end of America as we know it and that Kennedy was a socialist. It’s really the same things you hear about Obama today.”

According to Davis, people show their dislike for Obama the same way Kennedy's detractors did in 1963. “When Kennedy was president, General Walker and his people were flying their U.S. flags upside down, symbolizing that the nation was in distress because a socialist couldn’t control the government,” Davis says. “Where I live in Texas, two blocks from my house there is a gentleman who flies his flag upside down around the clock. It’s the same playbook that was used.”

The 50th anniversary of JFK’s death is not only a time to reflect on what has happened, but also to prevent history from repeating.